Living in the north of Brazil, facing an estuary of the Amazon river, I blog about Brazil and life in the delta of the Amazon. Serious issues with a wink to the sometimes light-hearted Brazilian society, including its curiosities and a touch of its beauties.

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Land of Opportunity and Economic Responsibility

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Dilma Rousseff sold Brazil as the land of opportunity and economic responsibility. She continued to say that Brazil’s success is associated with partnerships with investors. She also spoke about the street protests in June and said that they did not imply a return to the past, but a request for more progress and achievements.

In her first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Dilma Rousseff defended her inflation policy, the target of the primary surplus and a larger domestic private and foreign investment in the country. Speaking during 33 minutes President Dilma Rousseff took to sell Brazil as a good place for investment. The president spent 10 minutes praising the off-shore oil concessions program and said that Brazil is open to investors.

– Brazil is now one of the broadest boundaries of business opportunities. Our success in the coming years, will be associated with the partnership with investors from Brazil as well as from around the world. We always will welcome foreign investment – she said.

The speech of the president was well received by businessmen and bankers. Despite facing problems such as a low economic growth rate and a persistently high inflation, representatives of financial institutions identified the speech as realistic and positive about a country that has its “ups and downs”. Dilma Rousseff ensured that Brazil has learned from past experiences of high inflation with its destructive power for the country.

– Inflation remains under control in Brazil and since 1999 Brazil follows the regime of setting targets. In recent years we pursued the target’s centre and each year we worked to achieve that goal. The results so far are within the targets. We seek convergence to the target’s centre. The experience we had of very high inflation rates in the 80s and 90s, taught us the destructive power of uncontrolled prices on income, wages, and corporate profits. Currency stability is now a core value of our country. I want to emphasize that we do not neglect the inflation – she said.

Maracanã in Rio under construction (39% concluded). The stadium is the place where the final match of the World Cup 2014 will be played.

The president also pointed to fiscal responsibility as key to the country’s development, ensuring that the accounts of the Brazilian government are under control, with “a qualitative improvement of the accounts in recent years, marked by a reduction of the net public sector debt, which fell from 42.1% in 2009, early on in the crisis, to 34% of GDP in 2013.

– Soon my government sets the primary surplus target for this year, consistent with the trend of reducing the public debt. We have one of the lowest public debts in the world, she stated.

Dilma Rousseff also advocated the control of the accounts of municipalities and states, “to strengthen the rule of fiscal responsibility, to make generating primary surplus throughout the federation more effective and transparent”.

In her closing remark, Rousseff said that it’s time to “overcome defensive postures and recognize the role of world trade in the recovery of economies”, and that a new cycle of global growth is in its gestation phase with more breathing space for emerging countries in that the crisis is moving away.

The street protests
Rousseff also talked about the demonstrations in June, that took to the streets of Brazil. According to her, there was no request for going back, but for new advances [in education, health care, public transport and against violence, coruption and wasteful public spending]. She said her government had not cracked down on demonstrators, but listened and understood what the protesters wanted.

– Democracy generates desire for more democracy. Social inclusion led to the expectation of greater social inclusion and quality of life awakens the longing for a better quality of life for more and better services – said the president.

At the end of her speech, Dilma Rousseff used three minutes to invite her listeners to the World Cup, repeating that this will be the “Cup of Cups”. According to the president, Brazil is associated with most countries of the world, through football, “promoting peace and battling prejudices”.